


bright, glittery things

by Monna99



Category: Band of Brothers
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-18
Updated: 2020-10-18
Packaged: 2021-03-09 00:02:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,617
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27085297
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Monna99/pseuds/Monna99
Summary: Shifty stares across the field of footprints in the trampled snow.
Relationships: Shifty Powers/Floyd Talbert
Comments: 2
Kudos: 14





	bright, glittery things

Shifty stares across the field of footprints in the trampled snow to the blasted wood beyond. The trees are less dense there, tank tracks clearly outlined. He can nearly see the mad dash cut by the retreating Germans -- can see how their shadows would have flit through the trees, there one moment, gone the next until only the reverberating echo of shell bursts remained.

“They out there, Shift?” Liebgott calls out, moving to stand at his shoulder. 

He shakes his head, listening as Joe mutters some uncomplimentary things about the Krauts before turning and retreating. It’s several minutes before the crunch of snow under heavy boots fades away. Shifty likes the men, but it’s nice to be alone, even with the danger of the war. Now that they’ve left Bastogne behind and are on the move again, he can almost enjoy the deep stillness of the forest and the cold, biting mountain air. 

It isn’t his to enjoy for long. Voices drift his way. He turns to go, not wanting the company, when one particular voice snags his attention, keeping his feet firmly rooted. 

“Want a smoke?” The two men break out of a close copse of trees to his left. Talbert takes the cigarette out of his mouth and eases it between the lips of one of their newest replacements. The boy, Castillo, is handsome -- strikingly beautiful if Shifty is being completely honest. It’s no wonder Talbert has gravitated toward him. 

Castillo laughs and hands the cig back after a deep inhale, playfully knocking his shoulder into the other man’s. “You stay away from me, Floyd. I’ve heard all about why you offer cigarettes to the replacements.”

Talbert’s easy, sly grin freezes in place when he spots Shifty. “Shift!” He pulls back a bit from the boy, running a hand over his hair. “Didn’t see you there.”

The boy turns to follow Tab’s gaze and jumps when he sees the sniper. “Fuck, man, why are you hanging back in the shadows like a ghoul?”

Shifty glances away, fingers tightening on the strap of his rifle, wishing he’d left. He should know better. The Toccoa men, like Tab, have learned to accept him and his eccentricity, but the replacements see him for the awkward, unsophisticated mountain man that he is. _Backwater hillbilly_ and _Native savage_ have been thrown around a lot, out of what they assume is his earshot. “Am I? Didn’t mean to.”

“It’s Staff Sergeant Powers to you,” Tab says coldly and, for a second, Shifty is honestly confused who he’s talking to. 

The boy’s big brown eyes that glint like shiny pennies widen in disbelief. “What?”

“It’s all right,” Shifty tries to intercede, but Tab is having none of it.

“When you refer to your superior, you address him properly. It’s Staff Sergeant Powers.”

The kid stiffens in affront, his jaw sticking out mulishly for a second before he concedes. “My mistake. Staff Sergeant Powers,” he grinds out. “I’ll head back now, sir,” he adds, tone glacial, eyes averted. 

Shifty sighs as the boy stomps off. After a moment, he sets down his rifle and sits, back braced against a large pine, gaze again locked on those distant vanishing shadows. “Don’t think he’ll be keen to take a stroll with you again,” he can’t help but point out, curling and uncurling his fingers to work out the stiffness. It’s not as cold as it was in Bastogne, but they’re still at the mercy of the elements. He's conscious of every step Tab takes closer to him. 

“Fuck it,” Tab mutters and slides down to sit next to him, their shoulders and sides brushing, thighs pressed together. 

Warmth expands from those points of contact until Shifty feels warm all the way through, as though Tab is his personal furnace. He doesn’t mention how rumors have spread in the company about Tab and what Tab likes to do with pretty, willing men out in the woods. The thought has him flushing, heat suffusing his body for an entirely different reason and he shifts, worrying at his lip. 

“What do you see out there?” Tab asks after a surprisingly long silence. He doesn’t seem the type to like silences. He strikes Shifty as more of a Nixon -- someone who needs to surround himself with the bedlam chorus of beautiful things and beautiful people to drown out the thoughts in his own head. He’s always thought Tab and Nixon must be running from something, but maybe they’re not, maybe they’re just untethered, free spirits who find meaning in shallow pursuits. Shifty wishes sometimes he could be like them. It gets a little lonely always being on the outside looking in, but he knows it’s not for him. He’s not built like they are, he can’t flit from person to person, charming and gay.

“Snow. Trees.”

Tab snorts and, after a thoughtful silence, starts to laugh. 

Shifty’s lips curl, though he hadn’t meant it as a joke. 

“Come on,” Talbert insists after a moment, “you’re an unbelievable sniper, you gotta see more than the rest of us, right?” he presses, elbow nudging against the other man’s ribs. 

Shifty shakes his head, flushing as he feels the other man’s steady regard. Talbert is studying him with the attention he usually reserves for his intended conquests and it makes Shifty squirm, mouth dry at being the center of that focus now. “I know how to interpret what I’m seeing is all,” he says quietly, blowing on his fingers for warmth. “Look over there.” He points, breath hitching as Tab curls closer, his boyish curls brushing the edge of Shifty’s jaw as he uses the sniper’s finger as a scope. 

“What am I supposed to be seeing?”

“There are pawprints in the snow. Three sets of them. One slightly larger than the other two. I can’t know for sure from this distance, but the prints look like they belong to foxes. A family, mama and two cubs. They cleared out of their den just after the German tanks rolled through -- no more than an hour ago.”

Tab pulls back and blinks at him. Delicate dusts of snow cling to his cheeks and eyelashes and his breath puffs between them in a white cloud. “Jesus, I can’t see any of that. You’re incredible,” he blurts out and his cheeks, already reddened from the cold, flush darker. 

Shifty bites at his lip and shakes his head. “I just seen these things before is all. Well, minus the tanks,” he corrects with a slight grin Tab’s way.

His gaze tangles with the other man’s and he can’t tear away this time, not even for fear that Tab will see too much. Shifty’s kept his feelings close to the vest, known nothing could ever come of them. Talbert is like the lovely, rich shops that Shifty had been curious about as a kid. They’d been so fancy and glittery and he’d loved looking in the large glass windows, but he’d understood even then that those delicate, enchanting things weren’t meant for him. That was okay, he loved hunting and fishing and exploring the hills. He’d never minded. Until Talbert. He can’t look at Tab and not yearn, not wish and he doesn’t want to simply look from a distance anymore. He wants to touch, wants to experience first-hand what Tab's wicked grin promises -- all sorts of downright sinful things at those hands and that mouth of his. 

And Tab is looking at him now like he might, like he’s considering. Shifty holds his breath, too surprised to move closer or away. Tab’s cold fingertips brush his temple while Shifty’s heart is doing its level best to beat its way out of his chest and present itself to the other man. But then Tab grins, breaking the tension and he tugs Shifty’s beanie down playfully over his eyes. “Come on, old man, let’s get back before we’re written off as AWOL.” He springs to his feet, dusting off the snow, face still flushed. 

Shifty breathes out quietly feeling the cold settle a little deeper into his bones and fixes his hat. “Right.” He stands more slowly and picks up his rifle. “You go on. I’ll scout ahead.” He turns his back on the silence that greets his statement, unsure how to read it. He can decipher the signals of nature, but people are beyond him. 

“Yeah, okay.” He glances back when he doesn’t hear Tab move. The other man is frowning and it’s not a look that sits well on his face. His charismatic, easy smile suits him best. Tab sighs out a sharp breath after a moment, shoving his hands in his pockets and rocking back on his heels looking very much like somebody’s little boy blue. “I don’t want to leave you out here on your own,” he admits with a self-deprecating laugh. “But I know you can take care of yourself,” he adds in rush, like Shifty might be offended. 

Shifty bites back a grin and ducks his head to hide his ridiculous pleasure at those words. “No, I know.” No one is protective over him, not like they are with Roe or Webster or Lip. Not that Tab is being protective. He’s a considerate guy, that’s all. It doesn’t stop his breath from hitching when the other man moves close again and snags his ODs.

“Come on. I’ve got a chocolate bar with our names on it. Let’s go back.”

Shifty follows, telling himself he needs to have his hands free and not tucked in his pockets in case they run into Germans unexpectedly. It has nothing to do with the way the back of his hand brushes against Tab’s as they walk.


End file.
